Partnerships and affiliations

The Department of Critical Care Medicine at The Hospital for Sick Children partners with many organizations provincially, nationally and around the globe. See below for a list of some of our respected affiliations.

CritiCall Ontario is a 24/7 intensive care emergency referral service, funded by the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care, which provides ICU placement, transport and expert advice to hospitals throughout Ontario.

The Medical Director is the former chief of the Department of Critical Care Medicine at SickKids, Dr. Desmond Bohn.

Critical Care Canada Forum

The Critical Care Canada Forum (CCCF) is a 3-day interdisciplinary conference in Toronto focusing on the science and practice of CCM in adults and children. CCCF attracts approximately 1,000 delegates each year, and operates through the Interdepartmental Division of Critical care Medicine at the University of Toronto.

Dr. Jamie Hutchison is a member of the CCCTG executive committee. Dr. Anne-Marie Geurgeurian, Dr. Steve Schwartz and Dr. Chris Parshuram are contributing members. Kristin McBain and Susan Ferri are clinical coordinators. Judy Van Hysue is executive member of the Canadian Critical Care Research Coordinator Group Paediatric Representative (CCCRCG).

Canadian Association for Critical Care Nurses (CACCN)

With their vision statement of “The Voice for Excellence in Canadian Critical Care Nursing”, the CACCN is a National, non-profit organization dedicated to maintaining and enhancing the quality of patient and family centered care by meeting educational needs of critical care nurses.

Currently the National Board of Directors of the association includes Karen Dryden-Palmer as vice-president and Ruth Trinier as treasurer. In previous years, Cecilia Hyslop held the position of president.

Canadian Critical Care Congress

The Canadian Critical Care Congress is an annual interdisciplinary conference of national and international speakers in Whistler, BC. The conference operates in association with the program of Adult and Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, University of British Columbia.

Dr. Peter Cox is a member of the organizing committee for the Canadian Critical Care Congress.

Center for Safety Research

The Center for Safety Research is in the Critical Care Program at the Hospital for Sick Children. Our work is to improve the safety of clinical care. CSR projects are funded by the CIHR, The Heart & Stroke Foundation of Canada, and the Ministry of Health & Long Term Care. Selected studies of the Center are projects of the Canadian Critical Care Trials Group.

Dr Chris Parshuram is Director of the Center for Safety Research.

Canadian Traumatic Brain Injury Research and Clinical Network

Traumatic brain injury is the leading cause of death and acquired handicaps in Canada. This new research group was sponsored by the Ontario Neurotrauma Foundation and the Canadian Institute of Neuroscience Mental Health and Addiction. The goal of the group is to link TBI research and clinical communities across Canada with the aim of fostering multidisciplinary collaborations.

Dr. Jamie Hutchison is the chair of this group.

GWTG Pediatric Research Task Force

Get With The Guidelines® - Resuscitation has its roots in the American Heart Association's National Registry of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (NRCPR), started in 1999 to collect resuscitation data from hospitals nationwide and create evidence-based guidelines for inpatient CPR. In 2010, the program was incorporated into Get With The Guidelines and enhanced to provide additional resources, tools and benefits.Drs. Guerguerian, Laussen and Parshuram and members of the Pediatric Research Task Force. Contact the GWTG Pediatric Research Task Force.

Maternal-Child Transport Advisory Committee (IM-CTAC)

The M-CTAC is a committee reporting to the Provincial Council for Maternal and Child Health, with a mandate to recommend a streamlined transport system for mothers, newborns and children that will integrate clinical experts and resources to provide timely and equitable access to care, improve patient outcomes and ensure the most efficient resource utilization.

Children’s HeartLink

Children’s HeartLink helps to promote the development of self-sustaining centers of excellence in pediatric and congenital cardiac care, as well as training teams of medical professionals around the world to meet the local needs of children with heart disease.

The PCACC is developing a framework for planning and governance of critical care services for newborns, infants and children across the Province of Ontario. This includes identifying and measuring performance metrics for system improvement and service delivery, enhance clinical skills through education and training, and tracking capacity and capabilities through monitoring trends and forecasting future needs pediatric critical care.

Pediatric Heart Network

The Pediatric Heart Network (PHN) is the world’s leading research network in pediatric heart disease. It is sponsored by the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute of the US National Institutes of Health and currently consists of 9 pediatric core centres in North America. The primary purpose of the PHN is to conduct multi-centre research and to support investigation into pediatric heart disease. Membership is granted based on competitive applications, which must be renewed every 5 years. The Hospital for Sick Children is the only non-US centre in the PHN.

Drs Laussen, and Schwartz are all members of the PHN Steering committee. Dr. Schwartz is a member of the PHN Executive Committee. Dr. Sivarajan is a site study primary investigator.

Pediatric Neurocritical Care Research Group

The Pediatric Neurocritical Care Research Group (PCNRG) is an international, multi-specialty organization focusing on research in neurocritical care for children. Mike Bell the current chair was recently awarded a $20 million peer reviewed grant from the NINDS to conduct comparative effectiveness research ( the ADAPT study) in children with severe TBI.

Jamie Hutchison is one of the founding members and Dr. Anne-Marie Guerguerian is a member.

Risky Business

Established in 2006, Risky-Business.com showcases a series of conferences that aim to mesh lessons learned from high risk industries to prevent adverse events associated with health care.

Dr. Peter Laussen is one of the founding members and developer of Risky Business conferences.

Extracorporeal Life Support Organization

The Extracorporeal Life Support Organization is an international consortium of health care professionals and scientists who are dedicated to the development and evaluation of novel therapies for support of failing organ systems.

The ECMO program is a member of the ELSO consortium.

International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation

The International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation (ILCOR) was formed in 1992 to provide an opportunity for the major organizations in resuscitation to work together on CPR (Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation) and ECC (Emergency Cardiovascular Care) protocols. ILCOR is composed of the American Heart Association (AHA), the European Resuscitation Council (ERC), the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada (HSFC), the Australian and New Zealand Committee on Resuscitation, the Resuscitation Councils of Southern Africa (RCSA), the Resuscitation Councils of Asia (RCA) and the Inter American Heart Foundation (IAHF).

Dr. Guerguerian is a member of the Pediatric Task Force for ILCOR.

Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada

The Heart and Stroke Foundation is one of Canada’s largest and most effective health charities. Over the last 60 years we have invested more than $1.35 billion in heart and stroke research, making us the largest contributor in Canada after the federal government. In that time, the death rate from heart disease and stroke has declined by more than 75 per cent. The Foundation’s health promotion and advocacy programs across the country are saving lives every day.

The Canadian Cardiovascular Society

The Canadian Cardiovascular Society™ has over 1,800 members. We are known nationally and internationally by cardiovascular health-care professionals for the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress (CCC), the CCS Angina classification system, the pan-Canadian Access to Care Benchmarks for the entire continuum of cardiovascular care, and the development of Canadian recommendations for the diagnosis and treatment of heart failure.